Pray for Sooner Magic on defense…
A blog reader had a great question that caused me to wonder about Lincoln Riley’s play calling before and after Bob Stoops…here’s my take.
For the most part Bob has struck it rich when it comes to offensive coordinators over the years. His list of Mike Leach, Mark Mangino, Chuck Long, and Kevin Wilson is a who’s who of play callers. His only fumble was his Josh Heupel hire. In that case, he had little choice in the matter as Heupel was his co-offensive coordinator and was the favorite son of OU fans…this pretty much sealed the deal. He salvaged that move later by replacing Josh with a Lincoln. Bob knew what he needed to do; he just had to wait for the right time. The Outback Bowl beat down by Clemson provided that time.
As for Lincoln’s play calling over the past two years, I suspect that Lincoln may have been a bit more conservative his year under Bob. Coming from East Carolina, he was learning the ropes in big boy football while getting to better understand his supporting staff of both players and coaches. I also assume that he came to understand early on that each series was critical due to the porous nature of a Mike Stoops defense. In his year under Bob, shortening the game seemed to be the best way to go.
With a year under his belt, Lincoln began to open up his offense as he took a chance at creating more possessions than the other guy. He decided to throw caution against the win by hoping that the Mike Stoops defense could slow down the other side more often than in the previous year. It worked…OU went from #6 in the country offensively that year to #1 in the country last year.
Head coaches who also call plays must be adept at both managing the game and calling plays. They must be the hands on, side line guy who has confidence in his eyes in the press box. Last year’s Texas game provided a perfect example of this fact. Cale Gundy saw that the Texas defense was set up for the Mark Andrews delay route down the sideline late in the game. Gundy calls the play down to Lincoln and as they say, the rest is history. This move may not have happened in Lincoln’s first year.
Losing Baker will test Lincoln’s mettle this year, so we shall see how confident he will be in his new offensive playmakers and the Mike Stoops defense. I believe that OU has upgraded the players on the defensive side of the ball and according to Lincoln he has made staff changes meant to help Mike out. We shall see how this works out in about in five weeks. In the meantime…
Pray for Sooner Magic on defense…
Boomer Sooner…
sportsprofessor 